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Elspeth Dumorney
Elspeth Dumorney is a Herbology teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry *Please note: this is a work in progress. Biography Family lineage and early life Elspeth Dumorney was born in a rich so-called 'Pureblood' family from Oxford but, when she was ten years old, her life changed as her parents started to move house frequently so much so that, by the time, she had reached the end of her first year at Hogwarts, the school was the only constant in her life and Ravenclaw House her family. She considered it to be home during the first two years as opposed to the various places she stayed at with her parents during the holidays. Her parents finally returned home in the summer of 2000 just before she started her third year and have lived there ever since. Elspeth Dumorney’s first act of magic took place when she was around three or four years old and she was walking around the rose garden at the back of their mansion on the outskirts of Oxford with her mother and her maternal grandmother. Whilst the adults were assessing the damage caused by a storm the night before, Elspeth crouched down on the carpet of roses strewn across the lawn. They were already beginning to wilt but, as Elspeth put one in the centre of her palm, it opened to its full bloom again and she called out to her mother and grandmother in joy. Elspeth Dumorney's parents (Fergus Dumorney born 1959 and Amabel Dumorney, née Dashwood, born 1960) had met at Hogwarts. Although they were in different years, they were both in the same House (Ravenclaw) and it was a source of great pride to them when Elspeth was also sorted into Ravenclaw. Her grandparents on both sides had also been in Ravenclaw when they were at school so Elspeth was certainly keeping up the family tradition (Philomena and Arthur Dumorney both born in 1930 and Guthrie and Dorothy Dashwood both born in 1933)! Hogwarts School years At school, Elspeth exceeded expectations in all subjects but the two she particularly excelled at were Herbology and Potions, Transfiguration running a close third. She was a quiet student with a rather small circle of friends all of whom liked the outdoors and nature. Weather permitting, Elspeth was often found in the school grounds identifying plants and doing odd jobs for the Herbology teacher from the Third Year upwards. Beyond Hogwarts After she left school, she decided to travel the world and learn from her experiences. With her wisdom and persistence, she made a few true friends as well as a few enemies. But there may be more to it than this; she is currently still studying although no one knows what and she is not about to tell: there is a deeply secretive side to her as well. She feels like there is more to learn in this world and that there are more watchful eyes than expected. Luckily she has plenty of resources to support her. As Elspeth was moving around quite a lot, it took some months for the letter from Fisher offering her a position at Hogwarts to reach her. She was taken aback when, upon her arrival at Hogwarts, she found out that Fisher was gone and had been replaced by Dorchester and her 'goons' as the students called them. Elspeth kept well out of their way, generally occupying herself in the greenhouses but occasionally helping out the odd student or two when they got in trouble. 15:55 Professor Elspeth Dumorney (ebediyet.snowpaw): /me walks in and takes in her surroundings carefully. This is the first time she has actually set foot in the Headmistress's office: the letter informing her of her appointment had taken a few months to reach her and, by the time, she arrived at Hogwarts in late February, the Headmistress was nowhere to be seen. Personality and physical appearance Personality Physical appearance Elspeth is tall, slim with brown/copper coloured hair and blue eyes. She likes to wear dark red lipstick and is always meticulously turned out even when pottering about the greenhouses. She is intelligent, determined, humorous and witty at times and very mature, perhaps wise beyond her years. She is adaptable and flexible within reason but can also be sharp if crossed. She is rumoured to be legilimens but as no one can provide specific instances, those rumours remain just that, rumours. Wand Wood: Silver lime “This unusual and highly attractive wand wood was greatly in vogue in the nineteenth century. Demand outstripped supply, and unscrupulous wandmakers dyed substandard woods in an effort to fool purchasers into believing that they had purchased silver lime. The reasons for these wands’ desirability lay not only in their unusually handsome appearance, but also because they had a reputation for performing best for Seers and those skilled in Legilimency, mysterious arts both, which consequently gave the possessor of a silver lime wand considerable status. When demand was at its height, wandmaker Arturo Cephalopos claimed that the association between silver lime and clairvoyance was ‘a falsehood circulated by merchants like Gerbold Ollivander who have overstocked their workshops with silver lime and hope to shift their surplus’. But Cephalopos was a slipshod wandmaker and an ignoramus, and nobody, Seer or not, was surprised when he went out of business.” Core: Unicorn hair “Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard. Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may 'die' and need replacing.” Length: 13¾ surprisingly swishy flexibility “Wand flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair - although, again, this factor ought not to be considered separately from the wand wood, core and length, nor of the owner’s life experience and style of magic, all of which will combine to make the wand in question unique.”